Grandparent, magic and wisdom

It is a special time for our family, Papa and Gran are with us from Scotland. They will be staying with us for 4 weeks. Bug and Gran have been lost in a fairy world - Gran's ability to enter this world completely is an inspiration to me. Looking at them playing on the swings together makes me think that they are more like sisters than Grandaughter and Grandmother. Papa and Gran this week have been the stars in plays, the audience for endless ballet routines, football players and wonderful dish washers!

This is a big learning time for me; adjusting to being a bigger family while letting go of judging myself as a mother through the eyes of others. I am also hoping that some grandparent, magic and wisdom will seep into my soul over the coming month. When I felt frustrated about JJ's anger and behaviour today Gran just gently said "it will pass, just be thankful he is with you" reminding me how temporal life is.

Nippers

Today was Bugs first day at Nippers for this year. Nippers is a program run by the surf lifesavers for kids. It is held at the beach in the early morning and involves lots of physical fun and some surf safety. The biggest concern for Bug was makking new friends.... she made 2 new friends and had a wonderful time running, swimming and building sand castles.

Then home to play with Sunshine the duckling :)

The Spring fair

At one of the homeschooling groups we go to this week we had a Spring Fair. All the kids set up their own stalls and everything was a silver coin in price. Bug decided she would do hair and JJ wanted to sell bunches of flowers. The other stalls held all sorts of wonders ranging from smell balls and edible necklaces to handmade magnets and rides on a small motor powered car. It was fabulous, JJ kept his money and Bug spent most of hers on treats :) JJ gave me and Willow some of his money dispite our insistance that he should keep it, he really wanted to share it with us.

Let's fly a kite

At our homeschool group this week there was a kite flying day. We don't have any kites so Willow made some simple little kites from a pattern he found online. A little bit of wrapping paper, some bamboo, sticky tape and a cut up plastic bag. I smiled to myself thinking secretly they would not get off the ground. I was wrong... they worked beautifully! JJ was like a litte steam train running here and there and everywhere, wind blowing his hair back, his kite trailing along behind him. He looked at me later in the afternoon and said "Mum this is the best day ever".

Ducky Love

we have a couple of new additions to the family... pictures are better than words here :)

Letter

Flower arranging

JJ is very interested flowers. When we gosome place new he likes to collect flowers and make an arrangements with them to enjoy when we get home... He also spends alot of time at home in the garden collecting flowers, berries, beautful leaves and feathers and arranges them in vases with great care. We often have a vase on just about every surface.

Felt letters

Loopity Lou's blog is an abundance of inspiring creations, we were just looking at it the other day when Bug fell inlove with her felt aphabet letters. Eeek, in the name of learning I thought I'd give it a wobbly go and start an alphabet. Bug soon decided to take over the project after watching me do a few letters. She is up to 'F' now and is talking about all sorts of wonderful things she'll sew next.

as sweet as a flower

It was my birthday today and we had a fun day filled with family, cake, singing, dancing and playing. Instead of crashing out in a tired heap JJ decided he couldn't possibly sleep until he finished this letter to me. He worked on it from 8 pm until 9 reading out as he wrote,. It says things like "Mama you are as sweet as a flower. Your breastmilk tastes like love hearts. I love you more than ever. You are a princess...."

"Scare City"

My lovely friend sent me this

THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove::

Scare City ::When you buy into the *scarcity* principle, you live in "Scare City": a place where you're always afraid of coming up short.

In Scare City, you can't enjoy what you have -- you're too busy worrying about what you *don't* have. All the cups in Scare City are half empty.

Somehow, young children are largely immune to the distressing effects of living in Scare City... They enjoy the abundant *now* while their parents worry about the lack of time.

They transform their homes into magical worlds while their parents worry about the lack of order.

They give and receive love endlessly while their parents carefully ration their limited supply.

To live the Good Life, you have to leave Scare City and go to a *dance* -- a joyful, magical, healing dance where you release your fears and *shake your booty* like nobody's watching:
a-BUN-dance! Are you willing to do A BUN DANCE with your child? :-)

http://dailygroove.net/scare-cityFeel free to forward this message to your friends!(Please include this paragraph and everything above.) Copyright (c) 2008 by Scott Noelle

I am willing!

Bugs pictures

Bug felt inspired to spend some time on the photo project today. She chose pictures that meant something to her instead of taking pictures. Here is what she came up with. We had alot of fun choosing the right card to mount them on, which we will tackle tomorrow.

JJ's Photos

We have a photographic exhibition coming up for our homeschool group this week. JJ has taken alot of photos lately of his artwork and his world. We put them togther to form this mosaic tonight. The world through JJ's eyes.....

Feeling Clucky!

Bug and JJ have been in the hen house to collect the eggs and saw a hen sitting on 3 eggs. Bug was very excited about this because she thought the hen had gone clucky and would hatch the eggs. Sadly she was just laying and lingering a bit and soon left the nest. I just turned around to discover that Bug had made a nest and is trying to hatch the eggs herself :) The trouble is I want to make a pumpkin pie and need those eggs!

Unschooling Mama

Writing "The Wonderful Place" is now the catalyst for some serious learning for me, in true unschooling fashion. I knew very little about formatting a book for print, coverting things to PDF files, composing letters to prospective retailers.... untill I needed to use this information. In the past few days I have learned so much. I have called and spoken to professionals, friends and children. Although I have had the odd response such as 'I think you are naive to try t do this yourself' I have soldiered on. Writing this book is more about celebrating breastfeeding and gentle mothering than it is a business and I am looking forward to sharing it with others.



Yesterday my very clever friend Roxy and I finished the layout of the book and I am delighted to say that is even more special than I hoped.



It is amazing what we can learn if we don't allow ourselves to believe that we can't. It is also wonderful how things fall into place and the right people seem to come into your life at the right moment.



There is a great quote that springs to mind right now and I am off to find it :)

Cut Outs

Since Bug was really little she has asked me to draw 'cut outs'. These are just small drawings of whatever takes her fancy at the time, which she then creates a game around. We have had mermaids, fairies, super heros, animals and people that she has met. When we read a story Bug asks me to copy a character or two from the book 'with their arms down flat' which then is played with for long after the tale is finished. The characters meet other charaters from other books and real life, fall inlove, have adventures and sort through problems. She has a favourite few until they wear out :)

Over the last few years I must have drawn 1000s, usually I do a few each day. I have encouraged her to draw her own (during those moments when I over parent) but she loves my part in the process, content to watch.

What a beautiful, magical and wonderful thing it is, when I put down whatever it is I am doing and sit and draw a tiny character who then gets more love than any barbie or brat doll in the house. I am so often reluctant but then find joy it creating them. I can never get too carried away a she has a very strict format, often going into a huff if I play around with colour, or format in any way.

What a joy it is to be a mother

Motherhood is truely a wonderful experience. You can move through the whole spectrum of emotions without even leaving the house! I am constantly amazed at how much there is to it and how crunchy it is. I feel like I have travelled miles and miles inside and delighted to find myself at new and unexpected places.

We have had a busy unschooling week... hanging out with friends, clowns, ducks, dogs and slugs. Visiting the river, Hare Krishna farm, park and library. There has been huge amounts of play, conflict and resolution, giggles and tears. Baking cookies, making juice from our oranges, reading and putting in seedlings.

I have enjoyed doing the finishing touches to my book in my spare moments and now just needing to create some financial abundance for publishing...

Trip to the big smoke

Since Bug and Willow's return from their journey JJ has wanted to have an adventure... involving transport. A plane trip was not really possible so we decided on a train trip to the city. "Where it is very big and very busy!" We had big plans involving a movement workshop for Bug with the Queensland Ballet but the reality of taking 2 kid on trains and buses meant that we a bit late and missed that part of the plan.

We did however have a fantastic time in the State Library where there is a very cool corner with art and craft, puppets, boxes and pretty special thing to do. The littles were more into riding the escalator than the art in the Art Gallery (much to my chargrin!). We met some good friends in the museum for some more escalator action (with walkie talkies!) and a look at the museum Zoo exhibition.

Now I have sucesfully made the trip and know my way there and back safely I plan on making a habit of city adventuring.

Being together again

After being apart for over 2 weeks our family is back together again. Processing everything and finding a way to be with it all. Life is constant motion and it takes my breath away. It is powerful for me to experience this grief through Bug and Willow's eyes and more real to me.

Here are a few moments from Bug's journey to Scotland with her Dad to be with our family in their time of grief.

From garden to tummy and beyond

We are having a wonderful time in the garden. Wandering, finding ladybugs, grasshoppers, butterflies and filling up baskets with fresh food. JJ loves collecting cherry tomatoes, corn, rocket, cuecumber.... actually whatever needs picking :) He can identify everything in the garden including insects and weeds. The compost heap is facinating with all of the worms working away and the green frog that lives in the worm farm lid.

After eating our homegrown corn yesterday JJ was delighted to look in the potty this morning and find it there! We had a long conversation about the digestive system then headed out to the garden to see what ele we could find there.

Together we made a stir fry for dinner with what we found there and ate it with noodles by candlelight. While we were cooking JJ made the letter "T" out of uncooked noodles because he misses his sister.... And another bug machine.